Nurses and midwives in the Republic of Ireland have announced plans for industrial action in protest over “unsafe” staffing policies.
The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) and fellow trade union Fórsa have today issued a notice of industrial action to the Health Service Executive (HSE).
“Unsafe staffing is having a detrimental impact on the health and safety of our members”
Phil Ní Sheaghdha
The notice warns employers that industrial action will start in three weeks – from Monday, 31 March – and will involve working-to-rule and other “non-cooperation actions”.
The row is over restrictions to health worker recruitment and unions’ concerns over the impact on staff and patient safety.
In 2023, the HSE enforced a recruitment freeze because it claimed that the growth in the workforce that was being seen was running above projections and what was affordable.
Then in July 2024, the freeze was replaced with a new HSE Pay and Numbers Strategy that introduced a staffing cap on all health services.
According to Fórsa, the strategy meant that posts that were vacant as of 31 December 2023 were ‘decommissioned’, resulting in thousands of posts being lost.
At the end of last year, members of both INMO and Fórsa voted in favour of taking industrial action over the strategy.
Now, notice has been served to the HSE, as well as the charity-run hospitals that it funds, known as section 38 voluntary hospitals, that this action will begin in three weeks.
INMO general secretary Phil Ní Sheaghdha said: “Nurses and midwives on the frontline are crying out for support, and they feel ignored.
“Instead of additional staff, they are being faced with recruitment embargoes and needless administrative obstacles.
“Senior decision-makers in the HSE are clearly desensitised to the risks associated with continuing to leave posts vacant.
“Unsafe staffing is having a detrimental impact on the health and safety of our members who are experiencing high levels of exhaustion and are extremely demoralised by constant exposure to high clinical risks.”
INMO director of industrial relations Albert Murphy added that directors of nursing and midwifery needed to be given the freedom again to fill posts as necessary to meet service demand and ensure safety.
Meanwhile, Fórsa national secretary Linda Kelly said the industrial action would show leaders “what happens when our members stop covering up the cracks in the HSE’s staffing strategy”.
“There’s never yet been a dispute that hasn’t been resolved in some fashion”
Bernard Gloster
According to Fórsa, the industrial action will include staff adhering strictly to the terms of their contract of employment; refusing overtime; and declining weekend, bank holiday and on-call shifts unless normally rostered for those shifts.
Asked for a response, the HSE referred Nursing Times to comments made by its chief executive Bernard Gloster on RTÉ Radio 1 this morning.
Mr Gloster noted that, despite the recruitment freeze and rules put in place via the Pay and Numbers Strategy, the Irish health workforce had grown and was continuing to grow.
He said that between 2020 and the start of 2025, the workforce had increased from 120,000 whole-time equivalent staff to 148,000.
He said industrial action was “very regrettable at any time” and claimed that this action would fall “outside the terms of the public service agreement which gives us stability”.
As reported by the Irish Independent, the current public section pay deal in Ireland included a clause against industrial action being taken.
Mr Gloster suggested that talks would happen to try and resolve the dispute, but he stuck by the Pay and Numbers Strategy.
He said: “There’s never yet been a dispute that hasn’t been resolved in some fashion and I’m sure over the next few weeks we’ll have further discussions.
“But the fundamental of having a funded number of a workforce – it applies in every organisation, public and private.”
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